Beyond Hunger

We have a sweet tooth just as much as the next organization, but remember, at Beyond Hunger we're all about providing nutritious and healthy foods for our community.

While we don't accept Halloween candy as food donations, you can find a place that does! 🎃🍬

Soldier's Angels, a nonprofit that runs a Treats for Troops program, collects candy for service members and veterans. Look them up online for a Candy Map with drop off sites in the area!

November is Native American Heritage Month! Expand your knowledge, attend an event in the area, and learn how you can uplift Native American voices by visiting the Native American Heritage Month resource library on our website.

It's , and we are eager to thank the Healthy Community Foundation! The Foundation has generously provided funds for Beyond Hunger to continue our work addressing social determinants of health, and we are honored to be one of their grantee partners.

This invaluable support will empower us to continue our mission of addressing the social determinants of health through our hunger relief programs. Thank you Healthy Communities Foundation!

Corey Kessler, local photographer, founded Photosforfood and began taking photos (primarily family portraits) in exchange for donations to Beyond Hunger in 2015. He is often cited as saying, "I don't eat to live, I live to eat," and is a strong believer in providing healthy and nutritious foods for all. Now, nearly 10 years later, demand for Corey's talents is still high.

To date, the PhotosfoFOOD project has raised a total of $105,578, or 316,736 meals, in support of Beyond Hunger! When we shared this incredible impact with Corey, he shared:

"I am beyond words to see these numbers, officially. I could have never imagined and am quite honestly speechless. It really has been an amazing experience, but my gratitude is truly to the staff and volunteers who understand the importance and impacts of a good meal."

You can support Corey and Beyond Hunger by booking him for a session today! As the holidays approach, be sure to schedule your family portraits.

Together, we give to fight for a hunger-free future

Giving Tuesday is 5 weeks away, and your support is crucial now more than ever! Our programs provide critical services to 65,000 individuals, a 25% increase from last year and the most we have ever seen in our history.

With the holidays approaching fast, you can ensure that every family's table is full of healthy and nutritious meals.

There’s still time to donate for a chance to win tickets for An Evening With CAKE! For every $25 donation you’ll get one entry to win 4 seated grandstand tickets with unbeatable views of the concert.

Donate today using the link in our bio! Winner be selected November 4th.

Our goes out to Spoke.Cafe and the Fall Market they hosted last weekend! This year's artisan market highlighted a variety of local vendors, all of whom donated a portion of their sales to Beyond Hunger and our mission.

Let's talk about food knowledge, also known as food literacy!

Food knowledge is the ability to understand food nutrition and how how to make good food choices on not only what to eat, but how to eat it. Food literacy provides people with the tools to make informed decisions about what they eat based on their wants and needs to live healthy and balanced lives.

The goal of our cooking class series is to provide food knowledge that is sustainable, can be applied to more than just the meal being prepared, and that offers a variety of skills and materials surrounding health, nutrients, and kitchen safety.

Together, we have the power to end hunger. The holidays are approaching fast, which means Giving Tuesday is too! This year’s day to give will be Tuesday, December 3 (the Tuesday after Thanksgiving) 🧡

Beyond Hunger has spent the past 45 years providing innovative, sustaining solutions to food insecurity, and we have done so with the hard work of our community. This Giving Tuesday, we’re asking you to join us in creating lasting change – because together, we can build a hunger-free future.

Follow along with us every Tuesday leading up to to learn how you can get involved, give to win one of our raffle prizes, and help us raise as many funds as possible for our hunger-relief programs!

Thank you to the students of the Huskie Athletic Council, who spent their day off last week volunteering with Home Delivery! They helped assemble boxes, organize and restock our shelves, and bag fresh produce like potatoes and lemons as we gear up to deliver these groceries to homebound seniors and adults.

Members of our Board volunteered last week to pack groceries for our Despensa program!

Between our food pantry, home delivery, and the Despensa, we offer nearly 1300 shifts each month to keep our programs running. If you're already a volunteer, use your portal to check out our variety of shifts! If you're interested in volunteering, visit us at www.gobeyondhunger.org/volunteer to get involved.

An Evening with CAKE is officially SOLD OUT, meaning 3,300 people are rocking out with us to end hunger on November 23.

It is a perfect opportunity for your brand/company to be seen, appreciated, and aligned with a cause that matters! With premium visibility to VIP seating, you'll have plenty of space to entertain clients and enjoy an unforgettable night.

Reach out to us for details and inquiries!

The Spoke Cafe Artisan Market is happening THIS SATURDAY in River Forest! Enjoy crafts, food, and live music, support local entrepreneurs and artisans, and help support Beyond Hunger. This event is perfect for fall, including hot coffee, root beer floats, scones and much more!

It's World Food Day! This is an international day that commemorates the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 1945.

This year's theme is "Right to foods for a better life and a better future," which highlights the importance of access to nutritious, affordable, and safe food for everyone. It also emphasizes the need to increase the diversity of nutritious foods available in markets, fields, and on tables.

World Food Day is an important reminder of our mission, which perfectly captures this year's theme, of harnessing the power of communities to end hunger. We believe in access to healthy, nutritious food as a human right for all, and are proud to stand alongside a community that believes in fighting hunger.

An Evening with CAKE is officially 🎉 SOLD OUT 🎉

If you didn't get a chance to grab a ticket, don't worry. Starting THIS FRIDAY through November 1, you can donate to enter for a chance to win 4 seated grandstand tickets!

For every $25 donation to Beyond Hunger, you will receive one entry. A winner will be selected November 4 at 12pm.

A donate link will be emailed soon, use the link in our bio to sign up 🔗

Loretto Hospital & Loretto Hospital Foundation are hosting a farmers market in honor of World Food Day AND to celebrate the 1-year anniversary of their community cupboard! You can support them this Wednesday, 3pm-6pm, for free fruits and vegetables (partly donated from Beyond Hunger) while supplies last 🥬

Hispanic Heritage Month is almost at a close, and it's a wonderful time to highlight our Despensa program. Our "Despensa," meaning "pantry" in Spanish, started in 2020 as a way to provide food for recently immigrated families who were facing food insecurity during the pandemic.

These groceries are curated with Latin flavors in mind, and are distributed in the Berwyn community. It is a fantastic way to connect with our community and ensure that our food meets the needs of people from diverse backgrounds.

Volunteers help us pack groceries for Despensa at the Grace Episcopal Church, just up the street from the pantry!

We are thankful and honored to have received the Community Character award during the OPRF Chamber’s Spotlight Awards ceremony! We are especially honored to have been nominated amongst so many other wonderful community organizations.

This award recognizes a business or organization that truly embodies the unique, creative, and supportive spirit of our community. They are not only successful but also fun, smart, and one-of-a-kind.

Spoke Cafe and Hub Kitchen are joining forces to host this year’s fall market with proceeds benefitting Beyond Hunger!

Enjoy delicious food from a variety of Hub Kitchen chefs, purchase from local artisans and, as always enjoy Spoke’s coffee and root beer.

For more info or to be a vendor reach out to [email protected]

Bulbs for Beyond Hunger is back with Pickle Hill Parties! Prep your garden for spring with beautiful bulbs that can be mailed anywhere. This sale has already raised 6,000 meals for our community, and you can keep the momentum going! Visit www.picklehillparties.com for more information 💐

Please contact Beyond Hunger directly regarding tickets While we are currently sold out, more seats may become available and we want to ensure that you are not subject to any ticketing scams or "people" attempting to resell tickets!

Please message us directly or email Lauren, [email protected] for questions and information on tickets.

This year's fall benefit concert, An Evening with CAKE, is nearly sold out! There will be 3,300 people in attendance for our largest fundraising event of the year, and we can't wait to rock out to end hunger.

This concert will mark 13 years of bringing our community together to raise awareness of local food insecurity, and funds that directly support our hunger-relief programs. This concert series, which almost always falls on our pantry's busiest weekend of the year, has raised 3.9 MILLION meals! As we continue to provide programming for 65,000 people, this fundraiser matters now more than ever.

Interested in becoming a sponsor? Contact Teri, [email protected]

The annual Walk With Grace walk-a-thon and food drive was a huge success! Thank you to all participants who walked through the neighborhood, picked up food items, and packed and dropped them off at our pantry. This food goes directly back into the communities we provide programming for, and become nutritious and filling meals that sustain the individuals and families who shop at Beyond Hunger.

This Thankful Thursday, we are especially thankful for everyone who helped make Hockey Checks Hunger a huge success this year! Players traveled throughout the community to pick up groceries, including some of our most needed items, brought them to our pantry, and even sorted them to get them ready for distribution. We look forward to Hockey Checks Hunger every year, thank you OPRF Hockey Club!

We're continuing to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month by highlighting some of the foods you can find in our Latin Flavors boxes!

Items in these boxes are curated by our Nutrition Education and Pantry teams to incorporate culturally relevant and familiar foods such as Maseca and Pan flours, tortillas, beans, rice, avocadoes, and mangoes to name a few.

Latin Flavors boxes are available at each of our grocery distributions and can be found at our Despensa distributions.